Project: Simple Cutting Board for Gift

[Jim Becker]

Our younger daughter and her now-fiancée (as of a few days ago ) are moving into a beautiful, recently renovated studio apartment in center city Philadelphia at the end of the month and I decided to make them a "house warming" gift that would be useful. There are more involved projects coming for them, too. At any rate. a bunch of available maple and some time with both the CNC, power tools and hand tools resulted in this nice end result. I asked for their "favorite couples' color" and worked hard to get the resin inlay on the display side to match. THAT was a "fun" exercise...

A-D-Board-Front.jpg A-D-Board-Back.jpg

The display side has embedded soft feet to support the board off the larger work surface when using the "business side" of the board for food prep.

[Leigh Betsch]

I like it. The problem with cutting boards is that they are too nice to cut on.

[Mark Rainey]

I like it Jim, a very useful gift!

[Tim Andrews]

Looks great Jim, she will think of you every time she uses it.

[Jim Becker]

I like it. The problem with cutting boards is that they are too nice to cut on.

Yup...hence, the two sided design. One for show and one for "go".

[Jim Becker]

Looks great Jim, she will think of you every time she uses it.

Hah! Dan is the cook in that relationship. He did that to earn money while in school. It's something we both share as I'm the cook here, too.

[Peter Mich]

Great gift. I’d like to learn more about how you added script to the “show side” of the cutting board. Could you point me toward helpful resources? Thank you.

[Jim Becker]

Great gift. I’d like to learn more about how you added script to the “show side” of the cutting board. Could you point me toward helpful resources? Thank you.

Recesses for the resin inlay were cut on the CNC and then the resin was, um...inlayed...in two pours after sealing with clear to avoid any bleeding of color.

[Michael Burnside]

Well done. The resin inlay actually looks like a different species of wood, at least in the pictures.

[Jim Becker]

Well done. The resin inlay actually looks like a different species of wood, at least in the pictures.

Yes, it's hard to see the color in the photos...it's a sage-y green with some mica sparkles. That side of the board is also "hyper sanded" up through 1200 because that was necessary to shine up the resin given the board, itself, could only receive an oil finish because of its use. (Maple shines up very nicely that way, as an aside) Doing the inlay with wood was certainly an option and it's easier to do now with the new Vectric toolpath in V12. But "The Princess" and her beau wanted the green, even though they had no idea what I was making at the time I asked them for the color preference.